After attending the Farmington Fair (in scenes pictured above), here are a few thoughts:

It's refreshing to see so many farming families taking part, bringing animals, produce and crafts to be viewed and/or judged. To read the mainstream media, it would appear that the farmer has disappeared. Central Maine may be home to small agricultural operations, but there are many families still involved. That said, farmers must have some soul-searching moments as they try to deal with all the debt that is involved in buying provisions, acquiring equipment on credit, keeping animals healthy and getting in the crop on time.

I liked the trotters and pacers, and you can get right up to the fence to watch them racing along. There were hundreds of animal vans on the grounds, suggesting it is a major undertaking for participants to actually get involved in the annual fair.

A day at a rural fair suggests to me that universal health care (or healthcare for all, on a yet-to-be-determined pay scale), is all but impossible. I'm not joking. A high percentage of these rural fairgoers smoke. Most are overweight, and judging by the amount of fried dough and pizza that is consumed, it is easy to see why. And considering the farming is one of the most dangerous professions in the state, it seems unlikely that a health plan can be devised that would create a break-even pay plan to cover the ailments that will accrue to this slice of the population.

A visit to a historical exhibit brought light a book I had forgotten about - or maybe never knew: "The Paper Plantation" by Ralph Nader. It was written in 1973, and condemned the corporations that owned the paper mills for polluting the state's rivers and streams. Plus, they often kept workers earning a minimum wage while they profited from Maine's resources. (An aside: "The Paper Plantation" can be purchased for $2.25 on Amazon while his more famous book, "Unsafe at Any Speed" about the Chevolet Corvair, costs $60 today on Amazon).

It's a new ballgame now, of course, since many jobs in the paper industry have disappeared. But Maine has much cleaner waterways, and cleaning up has been of benefit for the tourist industry as well as locals who like recreation. The corporate execs always complained that cleanup costs were "too high." Now many wood-products jobs are going overseas. Maybe they would have gone anyway, but it has been a rough transition for rural blue-collar drivers and woodsmen whose economic futures are disappearing. I guess Mr. Nader's efforts at reform cuts both ways, in economics and in politics (re: the 2000 election that cost Gore many votes, including 97,000 in Florida).

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